Cited by 428Face Recognition and PerceptionAction Observation and SynchronizationChild and Animal Learning Development

Neural mechanisms of social attention

Open access
Nummenmaa, Lauri, Calder, Andrew J.·2009·Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Abstract

Social attention is conveyed primarily by gaze, but also by head and body orientation. These cues not only signal a seen agent's direction of attention but are also used to infer their current goals and intentions. Here, we review recent research showing that different gaze, head and body orientations are represented by distinct neural mechanisms, and show that a statistical summary of recent neuroimaging studies reveals a widespread neural network for gaze processing. We discuss how this network subserves visual analysis of social attention cues, and imitative attention shifts and mental state attributions from these cues. We also review new research indicating that the posterior superior temporal sulcus region responds to the inferred intentionality of social cues, and consider the development of the gaze perception system.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.tics.2008.12.006

Cites

100 of 100 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Posterior MTG/STS region has been proposed to encode intentions of an agent's actions and to be associated more broadly with empathy, mentalizing, and theory of mind.

    “that has been proposed to encode the intentions of an agent's actions (42,43) and also to be associated more broadly with empathy, mentalizing, and theory of mind (44,45).”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Nummenmaa, L., & Calder, A. J.
Affiliations
  • University of Turku (FI)
  • MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (GB)
Corresponding author
Nummenmaa, Lauri
Venue
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-03
Volume
13
Issue
3
Pages
135-143
ISSN
1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1997326154
Cited by
428
References
100
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 28
FWCI
2.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Academy of Finland
  • Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords
social attention, gaze processing, head orientation, body orientation, posterior superior temporal sulcus, mental state attribution, social cognition
MeSH terms
Animals, Attention, Brain, Cues, Facial Expression, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nerve Net, Orientation, Social Perception, Temporal Lobe, Visual Perception

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review